To be completely confused and overwhelmed about perimenopause

[inthekiddle]

Just don't know where to start! Everywhere I look there is different advice and a lot of it seems really unachievable.

Putting on weight, struggling to keep it off. Tried intermittent fasting but hadn't made any difference. If not eating for half the day every day doesn't help then surely if I start eating three meals a day again I'll put on even more? Am I supposed to just starve myself? Only eat one meal a day?

Advice to cut out sugar - sure but that's a pretty extreme lifestyle change for most people. No carbs, no alcohol, no desserts? We're told all our lives not to deprive ourselves and everything in moderation then we get to 40 and everyone's like oh wait no you can't eat now, you can't enjoy food.

Don't go out to restaurants because you'll definitely eat too much and you can't have a glass of wine. So basically don't see friends unless it's for a walk in the park. But friends are really important as you age so do make time for them.

Weight training. Sure, but I work full time and have children, how can I fit this in often enough for it to make a difference? Tried one weights class and one Pilates class a week, doesn't make any different to my weight. When can I do more while at the same time making time for my kids and shopping for healthy food?! Do cardio, don't do cardio.

Anyone else just overwhelmed with all this, plus you know, just getting through daily life?

I would rather live this second act as healthy as a can try and be not knowing what is around the corner but knowing I tried my hardest to keep myself well.
Also - as a long term beneficiary of the amazing results of intermittent fasting I can say the biggest issue is that some do it only on a weekday but it takes 4 days to reset once you break it ( source: Andrew Huberman)

I think the sooner you start hrt the easier it is. I'd consider the symptoms you have to be well into peri. I lost weight when I started hrt because I felt so much better initially. I've had a long journey so I put on quite a lot of weight at one stage of it but I'm losing it again.

There's evidence now that IF causes colon cancer.

Everything in moderation remains the wise position.

How?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07840-z

Remember that until five minutes ago this preoccupation with peri-menopause (and the industry of advice and accessorising around it) barely existed. The level of concern that women are meant to attach to it these days is just ridiculous. If you feel ill, go to the doctor and they will assess your symptoms and work out whether they are menopause related and what needs to be done. Otherwise, just eat healthily and take some exercise. Same as you would at any other stage of life.

I used to be able to eat what I like and never put much weight on in my 20s. Post kids then I definitely got a belly which was worse if I over ate or drank. I'm 50 now and got a shock when I dug out my summer clothes this year to find I needed to buy a load of new shorts because I'd thickened so much around the middle.

I think it's definitely a combination of hormones/metabolism change/more sedentary lifestyle/not adjusting portion sizes accordingly. Dh insists on putting out the same huge portions every meal that we've always had and now I struggle to eat them a lot of the time because I just don't have the same appetite, because I'm not using the calories I guess (more sedentary as knackered after work every day!!). But because it's tasty and just habit I finish the lot and then feel overfull and often have indigestion. So I do think that portion sizes need rethinking when you're in perimenopause.

I went for a meal out a few years back and the group included someone who had been very into running when younger, and who was vegetarian. She was nearly 70 and still very slim. But all she ordered as a main course was actually a starter! So she had 2 starters, and I can't recall if she had dessert or not. And that's all she ate. She said she couldn't eat much anymore, and very much ate according to how hungry she actually was. I think it's probably good advice. Too many of us probably overeat calorie wise, just because we find the food so tasty.

@OptimismvsRealism thanks I've read that full research document and even the lead on it says they didn't do the experiments on any humans and what they are saying that is it is important to refeed correctly ie don't eat charred steak etc. This advice has been around for years and is well known in IF communities as to what one should eat to break your fast. With any eating protocol it would obviously be important to listen and read everything one can which I've done in detail.

Ok but it's an extreme eating protocol so I don't think it's a desirable proposition for most people. If there's additional risk involved it becomes ridiculous.

@OptimismvsRealism I'm not going to derail this thread so this is my last post about this - but it's not an extreme eating protocol, it reflects the way we were meant to eat. Good luck with the rest of your "research"

I absolutely get you OP just cut out alcohol and sugar and bread is ridiculously blithe if that's what you love and what makes you happy.

Exercise is what keeps me going even though it's mostly cycling (which I do a lot every day because I don't drive) but my elliptical trainer and mini trampoline gathers dust these days because my energy levels have massively dropped and I can't be arsed.

If it's not your natural inclination it's extreme.

I've also just read the full study and it doesn't show that IF causes colon cancer, at all.